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Etrandish language
The Etrandish language is a Human language first spoken in the territories that would become the Kingdom of Etrand by 0 BEKE/AEKE. It reached it's currently recognizable and intelligible form roughly around 600 AEKE, but changes are still ongoing. At this point, Etrandish has became the lingua franca of global trade, turning from a borrowing language into a loaning language, extending the language beyond the boundaries of the Kingdom of Etrand Evolution from Middle Etrandish Consonants * The voiceless stops and affricates became aspirated * Modally voiced stops and affricates partially lost their voicing word-initially and word-finally, becoming slack-voiced (completely devoiced in northern dialects) * In uneducated speech, coda-position nasals merged into a new phoneme at the ends of words * In all dialects but Standard Etrandish, the voiceless merges with the voiced Vowels * The laxing of short to has become fully accepted as standard and spread to diphthongs too. ** , , , and shifted to , , , and . ** and merged as * Diphthongization of long close-mid vowels: ** and diphthongized to and ** and merged as ** The long open-mid vowels remained unchanged * Shift of and to and ** The cluster became * Shift of to , eliminating historical distinction with (which shifted to 400 years before) ** remained unchanged * Merger of to in all except the Northern dialects Consonants : This is about Standard Etrandish phonology. If you want to read about dialects, see Etrandish dialects. * The voiceless /ʍ/ is present only in conservative speech. In every other variant, it is merged with the voiced /w/. * The voiceless stops and affricates /p t t͡s t͡ʃ k kʷ/ are aspirated tʰ t͡sʰ t͡ʃʰ kʰ kʷʰ when not in the syllable coda or proceeding a sibilant. ** There is no aspiration in conservative speech. * The voiceless stops /p t k/ are typically unreleased t̚ k̚ in the syllable coda ** In emphatic speech, they may be aspirated tʰ kʰ instead * The voiced stops and affricates /b d d͡ʒ g gʷ/ are slack-voiced d̥ d̥͡ʒ g̊ g̊ʷ word-initially and word-finally. ** In the dialects of Northern Etrand, they may be completely devoiced t t͡ʃ k kʷ in these environments. This is a marked feature of the stereotypical Steelhelm accent. ** Modally voiced stops and affricates are always fully voiced in conservative speech. * The dental fricatives /θ ð/ are often shifted to other positions. ** /ð/ is shifted to d̪ or even merged with /d/ in most dialects ** /θ/ is merged with /f/ in a lot of lower-class speech. Generally, /θ/ is preserved in its original form (as θ) much more widely than /ð/. ** /θ ð/ are preserved as ð not only in conservative speech, but also in most educated speech * The uvular nasal /ɴ/ only exists in middle-class speech as a merger of coda-position /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/ when no consonant follows ** Conservative speech preserves /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/ fully intact, as m, n and ŋ ** Most of the time, /ɴ/ is vocalized to ʊ̯̃ or ʏ̯̃, forming nasal diphthongs. */r/ is realized in multiple ways, depending on the envorniment ** In Standard Etrandish - as well as in the dialect of Western Etrand -, /r/ is realized as an... *** apico-alveolar trill r̺ word-initially and when geminated *** post-velar (optionally raised) trill ʀ̟~ʀ̟̝ after /k/ and /g/ *** apico-alveolar/retroflex flap ɾ̺~ɽ medially when not geminated *** velarized alveolar/retroflex approximant ɹˠ~ɻ in the syllable coda ** In several dialects, things are different: *** in Northern Etrand, the Guttural R ʀ~ʁ~ʁ̞~χ reign supreme. *** In Southern Etrand, /r/ is consistently realized as a post-alveolar / retroflex approximant ɹ̠~ɻ and may or may not be elided when no vowel follows (non-rhotic), based on speaker preference (speakers who elide the final /r/ pronunce /ər/ as ɐ). *** In the Eastern Mountains, /r/ is realized as an alveolar/uvular trill r~ʀ consistenly. The flap and approximant are never used. ** Non-humans will usually pronounce /r/ as in their native, non-human languages: *** Dwarves realizing /r/ as a uvular trill ʀ *** Halflings realizing /r/ as an alveolar trill/flap r~ɾ *** Lizardmen realizing /r/ as a retroflex approximant ɻ. Vowels : This is about Standard Etrandish phonology. If you want to read about dialects, see Etrandish dialects. Monophthongs * The vowels /ɒ/, /ɔː/ and /ɛː/ only exist before /r/ and /l/ * In all but the most conservative pronunciations - Standard and dialectal alike - /uː/ is centralized to ʉː, or even fronted to yː, especially after /j/. * /ɑ/ is primarily pronounced as ɑ or ɑ̈, but also has the following allophones: ** ɒ before coda-position /r/ ** ɔ before coda-position /l/ ** ɐ in diphthongs, word-finally, and also in vowel clusters following /ɪ/, /ʏ/, /ʊ/, /ɛ/ or /ɔ/: in other words, /ɪɑ ʏɑ ʊɑ ɛɑ ɔɑ/ are pronounced as ʏɐ ʊɐ ɛɐ ɔɐ. Diphthongs * In lower-class and middle-class speech, the nasal diphthongs əʏ̯̃~əʊ̯̃ ɛʏ̯̃ œʏ̯̃ iʏ̯̃ ɔʊ̯̃ uʊ̯̃ exist too, as allophones of /ɑɴ əɴ ɛɴ œɴ ɪɴ ɔɴ ʊɴ/ ** /ɴ/ does not exist in conservative speech. Conservative speech preserves /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/ fully intact, as m, n and ŋ ** Even in most non-conservative speech, /ɴ/ only exists word-finally See also * Etrandish dialects Category:Languages of Artograch Category:Elven languages